Once again, I ask you – isn’t it interesting that the very first words that God says to Avraham, the father of the Jewish People, is to go to the Land of Israel?

What are we suppose to learn from that? Can there be any question at all? One plus one is two. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out a simple equation like that.

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We don’t just read the Torah like it’s “Harry Potter” or the “DaVinci Codes,” God forbid. We read it to learn from it. We read about our holy Forefathers to learn from them and to follow their example. In telling Avraham, the father of the Jewish People, to live in Eretz Yisrael, God is teaching us as well that He wants us to live in Israel too.

Let’s face it. If God wanted, Avraham could have been born in theLandofIsraelto begin with. That would have saved Avraham the hassle of such a long shlepp with camels and donkeys and the rest of his entourage. For Someone who created the heaven and the earth, giving birth to Avraham inIsraelis peanuts. But God chose to have Avraham start off in the Diaspora precisely to teach all of the Jewish People in the future that wherever they lived, God wants them to pack up their belongings, just like Avraham, and relocate to Eretz Yisrael. As the great Torah commentary Ramban teaches, “The deeds of the fathers are signs for their children.”

What was Avraham’s reaction to God’s command? Without even calling Nefesh B’Nefesh, he departed immediately, as God had spoken to him. (Bereshit, 12:4. See the commentaries of Lekach Tov and Ibn Caspi). Even though the Land of Israel was filled with immorality, idol worshippers, and heathens that he would have to conquer, he didn’t say, “I’m not going because I don’t want to go into the army.“ Or, “I’m not going to Israel because there are Russian prostitutes there.” Or, “I’m not going because the politicians in the Knesset are corrupt.” Or, “I’m not going because the Moshiach hasn’t come.” He set off without listing 50 excuses and did what G-d commanded. Period.

In reward for Avraham’s obedience and faith, God gave him, and his children after him, the eternal inheritance of the Land of Israel, as it says, “And I will give you, and to your seed after you, the Land where you sojourn, all the Land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their G-d” (Bereshit, 17:8).

The great Torah commentator, Rashi, explains this verse as follows: “There, I will be their God, but a Jew who lives outside of the Land is like someone who has no God” (Rashi, loc cited).

Don’t get angry at me. Get angry at Rashi. Do you think he should apologize for insulting Jews in the Diaspora! How could he say such a thing?! What chutzpah!

Actually, he isn’t to blame. The Talmud says the very same thing (Ketubot 111A), and this is the law brought down by the Rambam: “IN ALL GENERATIONS, a Jew should live in the Land of Israel, even in a city where the majority of the inhabitants are heathens, and not live outside of the Land even in a city where the majority of the inhabitants are Jews” (Rambam, Laws of Kings and Their Wars, 5:12).

Hmmph! What chutzpah! The Rambam, Rashi, and Fishman! The Jewish Press should ban all of them!

But Avraham heard God’s command and immediately obeyed. That’s what makes him the father of the Jewish People – his complete Emunah (faith), as the Torah testifies: “And he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Bereshit, 15:6).

The opposite of this is where people have crises of Emunah, like in the case of the Generation of the Wilderness who refused to obey God’s command to make aliyah, as the Torah record: “And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the Land which I gave you,’ and you rebelled against the Lord your God, and you did not have Emunah in Him, and did not listen to His voice” (Devarim, 9:23).

Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook explained that there are two types of Emunah – the complete Emunah of Avraham Avinu, and the partial Emunah of the Spies in the wilderness, and their followers, of whom it is said, “And in this matter, you did not have Emunah in the Lord your G-d” (Devarim, 1:32).

What is the relevance of where Rashi lived or had vineyards? In many generations it simply was not an option to get to Israel or to live here. We are so blessed in our time to have the privilege to be here. Baruch HaShem!

If G-d tells you to murder a child, why should you do it?
1) To get rewards in heaven / be closer to G-d.
Why would I want to be closer to G-d using that ticket? I refuse on grounds of morality and justice.
2) To avoid being punished by G-d.
I admit, put a blow torch to my toes, I'll do anything. But that's not a good reason to conclude that's the right thing to do.
3) To get G-d to do good things for you / your people later.
I think we should trust G-d to be good, later, without us murdering the innocent.

I. It's possible G-d is testing us to see if we'll reject the rewards and do what is right.
If this is true, then the proper thing would be to refuse. Under this, it's wrong to listen to Voices, unless such Voice of G-d is not contradictory to morality.
"There is no inconsistency for an Atheist to say, 'There is an independent morality but there is no God.'" The Atheist is not making any internal contradiction.
– Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, Phd in Logic, Orthodox Rabbi, Ohr Somayach Yeshiva.
lecture on independent morality.
(independent morality means morality is independent like math is independent, you don't have to believe in G-d to believe in math).

Under I. notice that the rewards of the Torah promised to Avraham have, through the test of time, been exactly the price:
Price: murder an innocent child.
Reward: non-stop generation after generation being murdered by the goyim.

II. It's possible G-d really wanted us to trust Him and His fulfilling His agreements.
But we learned from the story of Cain that, even without a command, it's wrong to murder, the story reads that as a given. To ask me to go against that established by the bible and established by common sense and our expectations of Bnay Noach, it's a given that we should not murder the innocent. Future rewards do not justify violating that 'given' for which Cain was over and punished.
Under II, G-d really really really wants us to murder the child. Again, I must face Him, refuse, and be destroyed. OK, so I'm going to be destroyed, G-d really wants us to be immoral, and perhaps I'll burn in hell forever.
If I knew for a fact that I'd burn in hell forever, that would justify anything, even murdering anybody, I wouldn't blame the Muslims or Nazis for murdering people to avoid hell. But it would be an accusation against G-d, claiming that G-d has set up the world for us to be murderers to avoid G-d 'murdering' our eternal souls.
That's a rude suggestion to make about the Perfect, Absolutely Good G-d.
I wouldn't want my kids to think such of me, and that same reasoning is why I left Christianity, it's an insult to G-d to think He's going to be some eternal soul abuser for… for refusing to murder an innocent? Really? That's what G-d wants us to think of Him, He'll torture us forever (or 11 months) for refusing to murder our brother / child? What did Cain do wrong again?

Let's go back to Avraham. He should have said, 'Respectfully, no. I'm not made to kill the innocent. You, G-d, may do so, but I am morally obligated to try to save the innocent from your diseases, your infliction, I was made to save the innocent, not kill them.

If that had happened, it's logically possible, it's logically possible that G-d could have given us the same great Torah, minus the generations and generations of genocides as a consequence to our too quick payment of too great a price.

Notice in Exodus 31 tens of thousands of baby boys were murdered because females did something wrong. Moshe did not have time to go, plead for their lives in the Tent of Meeting, come back, and reluctantly relay G-d's command. This proves Moshe was speaking for G-d interchangeably with his own, arbitrary judgment. Why waste time? What I say is what G-d wants, no need to actually go ask G-d what He really wants with these kids, I don't have time for that, I just found out about these things, Hinay, what have you done? Did you let them live? Really? Kill them, all the boys, after all, their mothers did something wrong.

Wow. Not only is that immoral, that's illogical. The baby boys are to be executed for the crime of… their mothers doing something.

Wow.

you know, modern morality wasn't known back then. We, as human beings, kind of knew it was wrong, but only after the Holocaust have we, as global human beings, discovered it's morally wrong to kill large numbers of innocent people.

The Greeks had an idea of 'virtue', but it wasn't the same, modern morality we have today. Their gods went around raping human women, etc,

Let’s not get angry at Rashi but rather at ourselves for not learning, accepting and doing what Rashi taught. Who can say what was in Rashi’s heart? HaShem knows what is in our hearts better than we do.

In parashat VaYera, Lot went up from Tzoar and he settled in the hills along with his two daughters, they both got him drunk and became pregnant from him. One opinion is that the girls had the highest motives and they were therefore worthy that the Messiah would be their descendant. The older girl’s son was named Moab (means “from a father”). Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David was a Moabite (Ruth 4:17). As is well-known, the Messiah will be a descendant of David. (Rashi; Bereh Rabbah).

According to Me’Am Lo’Ez, Vol 2 pg 251, “Others say that the girls were driven by their sexual appetites. Still they were worthy of this miracle, if only to demonstrate the extent of divine reward. If G-d performs miracles for those who violate His will, how much more will He do for those who obey His will.” (Yafeh Toar).

Let's bring this down to the present day elections. For you to knowingly support those who want to destroy Israel and vote for the Muslim president who supports those (Muslim Brotherhood) who also want to destroy Israel, IMO, Hashem is not going to perform a miracle and have you make aliyah to Israel without sin and without problems from the first day that you arrive here for corruption is in your hearts. You cannot expect to keep acting like Zemri and to keep expecting a reward like Pinchas.